Imperial Museum [Constantinople. Musee Imperiale.]
One of the major archaeological museums in the world, this portion of Istanbul Archaeology Museum was inaugurated in 1891. A number of important relics are housed here, from the Alexander the Great's Sarcophogus to one of the world's earliest known peace treaties, carved in stone from the 13 century BCE.
There are actually three museums housed in the complex, including one that dates back to the 15th century. Its collection of Greek, Roman and Mesopotamian objects numbers in the hundreds of thousands making it one of the most important and uniquely cross-cultural museums in the world.